Paul Reubens

More shows: Because of high demand for tickets, the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood has added 16 dates for "The Pee-wee Herman Show," which opens Nov. 8. The engagement, which creator Paul Reubens announced Monday, will now run through Dec. 20.

Like many of those who've seen the new batch of “Smurfs” movies, Paul Reubens has an ambivalent relationship with the property's insistently perky theme song. “My experience for a few months was I couldn't get the song out of my mind. It's like an earworm,” Reubens said in an interview. There's only one difference -- Reubens stars in the movies. In “The Smurfs 2,” which opened last weekend in the U.S. and many countries around the world, the man long known as Pee-wee Herman reprises his voice role as Jokey Smurf, the punch-line-dispensing blue thing from the candy-colored land.

Like many of those who've seen the new batch of “Smurfs” movies, Paul Reubens has an ambivalent relationship with the property's insistently perky theme song. “My experience for a few months was I couldn't get the song out of my mind. It's like an earworm,” Reubens said in an interview. There's only one difference -- Reubens stars in the movies. In “The Smurfs 2,” which opened last weekend in the U.S. and many countries around the world, the man long known as Pee-wee Herman reprises his voice role as Jokey Smurf, the punch-line-dispensing blue thing from the candy-colored land.

He may be eternally youthful at heart, but as of Monday, Pee-wee Herman (a.k.a. actor Paul Reubens) is two years away from taking early retirement. The actor celebrated his 60th birthday. While 60 isn't an unheard-of age for a children's TV icon (Fred Rogers was filming "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" until he was 72), Reubens has managed to retain his young, energetic spirit as the years have worn on. Here's a clip of the original "Pee-wee Herman Show" at the Roxy Theater in L.A. in 1981.

THE line at the autograph table snaked out of the Burbank Marriott ballroom, the longest by far at the Hollywood Collectors & Celebrities Show. They could have had Batman. They could have had the cast of "Married ... With Children." But the cavalcade -- hundreds of fans wielding photos, magazines, DVDs, dolls, lunch boxes, photo collages, first-born children -- was there for only one man. OK, two men. OK, one man and one pre-adolescent pop culture icon.

There it sits, the paraffin head of Pee-wee Herman, in a position the nerdy bow-tied character could appreciate: between the bust of Brigitte Bardot and the face of Henry Winkler's Fonzie. Although Paul Reubens last April retired the spazzo persona from Saturday morning network TV and his arrest nearly three weeks ago at a adult theater threatened his popularity, Pee-wee Herman could have lived on indefinitely. In wax, that is.

On "Late Night With David Letterman" Tuesday night, comedian Robert Klein walked on stage shouting "Free Pee-wee!" He then turned to the camera and offered some friendly advice: "Pee-wee, get a VCR." Everybody is talking about Pee-wee Herman.

For anyone old enough to have come into pop cultural consciousness in the mid-'80s, Pee-wee Herman casts a long shadow -- albeit, an almost transcendently nerdy shadow, one most often recalled dancing atop a bar to the Champs' jaunty instrumental "Tequila" in his 1985 breakthrough movie "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." The impish man-child with an outsized laugh and an undersized grey suit became an improbable icon, graduating from guest appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and cameos in Cheech & Chong movies to his Saturday morning children's show, "Pee-wee's Playhouse."

March 19, 2011 | By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

Once upon a time, in a fair and distant land known as Los Angeles, comedian Paul Reubens debuted a stage show called "The Pee-wee Herman Show. " It aired as an HBO special in 1981 and led to "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," which was director Tim Burton's breakout film, and soon Reubens was starring in "Pee-wee's Playhouse," a successful children's show that ran on CBS for five years. Then, in 1991, Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure in an adult theater and the show was shut down permanently.

October 18, 1991 | ALEENE MacMINN, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

Court Updates: Actor Adam Rich has been released on $20,000 bail after his arrest for investigation of taking a drug-filled syringe from a hospital. . . . A judge in Sarasota, Fla., has excused Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman) from an Oct. 29 court appearance on indecent exposure charges so he can work on the new film "Nightmare Before Christmas."

March 19, 2011 | By Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

Once upon a time, in a fair and distant land known as Los Angeles, comedian Paul Reubens debuted a stage show called "The Pee-wee Herman Show. " It aired as an HBO special in 1981 and led to "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," which was director Tim Burton's breakout film, and soon Reubens was starring in "Pee-wee's Playhouse," a successful children's show that ran on CBS for five years. Then, in 1991, Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure in an adult theater and the show was shut down permanently.

SUNDAY There's a lot at stake when Ingrid Bergman portrays "Joan of Arc" in the 1948 historical drama, firing up a mini-marathon of films about the legendary 15th century French heroine that includes Renée Maria Falconetti in director Carl Theodor Dreyer's gripping 1928 silent "The Passion of Joan of Arc. " (TCM, 5 and 9:30 p.m.) Dave? Dave's not here, man. But Homer is, along with Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, a.k.a. Cheech & Chong. The reunited 1970s-era stoner/slacker comedy duo gets animated when they guest star on "The Simpsons.

CBS, the No. 1 network this fall, is revamping its schedule for midseason. "Blue Bloods," the police drama starring Tom Selleck, will get a four-week tryout at 10 p.m. Wednesdays starting Jan. 19, the network said Tuesday. While the show will move back into its Friday-night slot after that, the network has high hopes for "Blue Bloods," which is currently the second most-watched new drama this season after CBS' "Hawaii Five-0. " Starting Feb. 16, "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" will premiere in the 10 p.m. Wednesday slot.

For anyone old enough to have come into pop cultural consciousness in the mid-'80s, Pee-wee Herman casts a long shadow -- albeit, an almost transcendently nerdy shadow, one most often recalled dancing atop a bar to the Champs' jaunty instrumental "Tequila" in his 1985 breakthrough movie "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." The impish man-child with an outsized laugh and an undersized grey suit became an improbable icon, graduating from guest appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and cameos in Cheech & Chong movies to his Saturday morning children's show, "Pee-wee's Playhouse."

They were planning to fly to L.A. from all over the country to see one of their beloved pop-culture heroes. But now many of them are left with dashed hopes and airline cancellation fees -- and they are not happy, to say the least. On Tuesday, actor Paul Reubens announced that he was pushing back the opening of "The Pee-wee Herman Show" to January from November. He also said that the stage show would be moving to Club Nokia in downtown L.A. from the original venue at the Music Box @ Fonda in Hollywood.

In August, Pee-wee Herman, a.k.a. Paul Reubens, announced that he would return to the spotlight in a re-conceived version of his '80s stage production "The Pee-wee Herman Show" at the Music Box @ Fonda. Now the eternal man-child has announced that the show has moved to Club Nokia in downtown L.A. In addition, the show is now set to start its run Jan. 12, pushed back from the original opening day of Nov. 19. Ticket-holders can exchange their seats for "comparable" seats beginning at 10 a.m. today via Ticketmaster.

August 9, 1991 | ALEENE MacMINN, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press

It's in the Mail: Paul Reubens, TV's Pee-wee Herman, won't be in a Sarasota, Fla., court today for a scheduled arraignment. He has mailed in a written plea of innocent on indecent-exposure charges. Under state law, it's not necessary to be present.

Actor Paul Reubens, best known for his role as "Pee-wee Herman," pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possessing child pornography. Reubens, 50, is free on $20,000 bail. His attorney, Blair Berk, said she would seek to have the charge thrown out at a Jan. 3 pretrial hearing.

THE line at the autograph table snaked out of the Burbank Marriott ballroom, the longest by far at the Hollywood Collectors & Celebrities Show. They could have had Batman. They could have had the cast of "Married ... With Children." But the cavalcade -- hundreds of fans wielding photos, magazines, DVDs, dolls, lunch boxes, photo collages, first-born children -- was there for only one man. OK, two men. OK, one man and one pre-adolescent pop culture icon.